Commentaries and new papers on the Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Review of "King Over the Water"

Review
of King
Over the Water,
authored by Nick Farrell

Originally published in Hermetic Virtues, Summer Solstice 2012

By
Frater YShY

Every
so often a publication comes along on the Golden Dawn that has the
potential to change a bit of the history of the old Order; this is
definitely such a book. Within its pages we find a new depth to old
topics we have not seen considered in print before, and it offers
previously unpublished documents that show a slightly different
method of how the rituals could have been worked. There is also a
commentary by the author that threads its way through each section
that is both interesting and provocative. So, this volume provides a
variety of content, and I am of the opinion that it will make a
valuable addition for any serious magical library, being a must for
anyone studying or practising Golden Dawn magic.

King
OvertheWaterstarts
with a section on the history of Samuel Liddell "MacGregor"
Mathers, Golden Dawn co-founder, and Chief of his later GD off-shoot
which he renamed the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega, or AO
for short. An important quality of the book is its historical
approach. It has not been composed with the methodology or rigorous
standards of history, anthropology; but rather from the
magico-psychological perspective of a practitioner of the Golden Dawn
tradition. Any brief perusal of its pages shows that it indeed dances
between speculation on the psychology of Mathers, and the facts of
various detailed historical events; all of which is informed by the
knowledge and consideration of magical theory from the perspective of
an operative magician. As magic does not yet have its own
characteristic methodology or discipline, the book does not require
itself to operate under the rigorous standards of another field of
study; and the finished product takes advantage of this latitude.
What it is, is a magical book written under the auspices of the
Golden Dawn tradition; it is an internal history of GD magic written
by a magician, for magicians.

The
places King
OvertheWaterin
a different category from the other extant works of GD history. While
some other works demean the practical side of the subject, and others
are written from a clearly demarcated historical perspective, Kingis
accepting of the magical world-view, and takes a personal approach.
All of the above are acceptable positions in my own opinion,
depending on the author’s relationship to the historical material.
Even the kindest scholarly representations of GD history have been
penned carefully to avoid any discussion of the internal and
transformative reasons for practising the tradition; in short, they
are carefully written to avoid any discussion of magic.

King
OvertheWateris
not unlike other very popular books on Alternative History and
Freemasonry in particular; such as the prolific publications of
Knight and Lomas. Like these other books of Alternative History, King
Over the Water indeed
shares a similar, more casual, writing style. I did notice the use of
the common vernacular was consistent throughout the book, and that
the same cultural idioms that were oft-repeated. Some of these
slang phrases were unfamiliar to me, and in places I found that a bit
difficult to follow. As I progressed past the introduction, I grew
accustomed to the style of presentation, which was more
conversational and informative than the dry academic reading that I
am more used to, and was actually expecting from this book. There was
also a dour and surprisingly humorous quality to the content that I
fancy will catch a few of the more serious amongst us a little
off-guard. I quickly settled into reading King
OvertheWaterand
began to enjoy the content immensely.

I
agree with most of the conclusions and suggestive interpretations
made about Mr. Mathers in these pages. I found the assessments of his
faults and strengths to be accurate assumptions, and I was surprised
how King
Over the Water actually
mirrored some of my own speculative opinions closely. In many
cases this amounts to an undignified look at Mathers, but it is not
necessarily an unwarranted characterisation, for at times there were
indeed very foolish or unsavoury tales that must be told in order for
the book to fulfil its stated objective as a historical work. In
essence, it was a life story that was at times difficult for me to
hear and discover portions of as a reader and GD aficionado, and a
few times I found myself wincing at some of the stories. However,
I recognise that the candidness was warranted and provided a most
honest picture of the man. In this regard, and most importantly, I
found the book's information to be detailed and accurate, and in my
opinion the assessment of Mathers’ personality was fair, astute,
well-thought out and reasonably communicated. The addition of the
detailed obituary by John William Brodie-Innes is of course priceless
and well-placed at the end of the book. Because as he was a close
associate of Mathers, its fond and lengthy characterisation serves to
confirm much of this book's main hypothesis about Mathers
personality; all the while soothing out some of our impressions of
his foibles with the kindness that a good friendship and long
association can sometimes bring between two men.

The
book recognises that in any lay person's psychological analysis it is
hard to be certain of conclusions such as this with anyone, even with
ourselves, and much less with a long-since deceased person. At the
same time, the book does not shy away from some of its more difficult
descriptions about Mathers. This is a position I respect, for going
back to my characterisation of the book's approach as
'magico-philosophical', in modern GD practise this level of
self-conscious consideration should be present in the work of every a
magician, and encouraging this open analysis is an important process
to undergo personally as well as when considering the possible
motives of others. In this regard, I heartily appreciated the
attempts to interject only the right amount of uncertainty into the
research being presented, and in this an academic method is emulated.
This has the very much desired effect of rendering the new
interpretations presented in King
Over the Water as
more plausible. For those of us in other areas of expertise who are
perhaps unused to reading or participating in this sort of academic
work, I would kindly share or volunteer that this is a standard
methodology in historical works. Typically a paper or book
presents factual information; makes conclusions which are sometimes
new or difficult; provides some possible objections to its own thesis
that seem logical, or may be from the intended audience’s
perspective or the status quo; and then it finally overturns each of
those objections and verifies its original thesis. It will not be
hard for the average interested reader who is a non-expert to readily
distinguish where the blanks are being filled in by speculation
between the harder facts which are usually cited.

While
it is not mentioned in the body of the text, the biographical notes
in the back cover make it clear that the author is drawing on
initiatory experiences and oral traditions in the various GD related
groups he has been active in. While reading, one is left with the
impression that much of the information without citation is blended
oral tradition and the author's own opinions, all of which I enjoyed
reading. While it is written from the attitude of a practitioner, and
as has already been mentioned, therefore has no obligatory
requirement to take up a specific methodology in its approach;
nonetheless, as a reader I was so captivated by some of the stories
so much that I wished to know more about the sources of some of the
information. A small criticism and request would therefore be that I
would have liked to have seen even more historical citations
presented whenever it was possible. As this book already shows all
the hallmarks of a title that will be much sought-after for years to
come, I expect will likely be slated for re-prints. Perhaps the need
for more citations is something that could be rectified in future or
new expanded editions.

In
a final analysis, the foray into Mathers and the old Golden Dawn’s
history was well done. Particularly the sections on Mathers possible
political motives and some of his unsavoury and extreme associations
in Right Wing politics were new to me, as I expect they will be to
many of King’s
readers.
I thoroughly enjoyed the political section of the book, while the
publication of some of these older documents has been long overdue.
The slight dabs of layman's psycho-analysis were warranted and will
be much appreciated to anyone following a magical path. I have always
felt that a genuine magician’s primary goals would be tertiary in
nature: first, to develop a specialised skill-set; second, to better
oneself; and third, to improve the world around us. Wisdom and
insight are two inner constitutions life's maturity can take,
regardless if one is working to better oneself through a magical path
or not, and in this regard, ribald humour aside, King
delivers.

These
commentaries were interesting, and I particularly valued those on the
Vault. The section on the Vault walls was good, as well as the
typescript and reprinted sections from an original MSS of Book
of the Tomb,
which is not available in print anywhere else; it has literally been
a long-lost document to many of us. Now we finally have the painting
instructions for the inside
of
the Pastos that are missing from all other published Golden Dawn
books.

Furthermore,
the author offers a personal dialogue about his efforts building a
Vault. While I do not always agree with the more personal magical
theories presented in King
Over the Water,
no matter, because they are worthy as an Adept-level considerations,
they are thought-provoking and intelligent, and so I enjoyed
pondering them. I really can not emphasise this enough. This
level of Golden Dawn work is valuable, and by finally printing the
Book
of the Tomband
providing an insightful Commentary, this book proves to be an
excellent reference and will take its place as the primary resource
for Vault construction. For anyone serious magical practitioner
of the Golden Dawn tradition, this tiny section alone is worth many
times the cover price.

I
also thought some of the cipher musings were pretty astute. I have
been a proponent of what the book terms as the "reverse-engineered"
school for going on 20 years, which is the suggestion that the cipher
itself is forged after or during the same time period as the rituals
were worked out. I will not support this assertion in this review;
rather, you can read all about it in King.

The
section on S.L. Mathers is about two-thirds of the book, and is
therefore the main feature of attention; however, the original
documents such as The
Book of the Tomband
the full versions of the Alpha et Omega’s Z
Documents,
which are both printed here in full for the first time, are where
this book really shines for the researcher. There is also a solid
document on colour written by an anonymous modern Adept that is
informative and helpful.

There
are only the most minor editing details that were missed and some
Hebrew misspelling, but that is par for the course in any major
undertaking such as this book obviously has been. I recall finding
far worse mistakes in the various editions of The
Golden Dawnby
Israel Regardie, mistakes that we have all had to contend with for
many decades before they were rectified in the newer editions. As
always, when using information of this nature several texts should be
compared, as the maxim goes: caveat lector. This small observation
should not deter anyone from picking up this excellent book, there
were fewer mistakes in King
Over the Waterthan
in your average popular novel has these days, and in this regard the
editing staff did a good job.

The
pencil or charcoal sketches by Paola Farrell also deserve mention.
They are very beautiful, and these pieces add a dimension and an
elegance to the book that is lacking from other new books on the same
subject that are inexplicably peopled with the usual fare of
clip-art, or photocopied and pixleated wood-cut images.

All-in-all,
I think this book is an invaluable addition to the corpus of Golden
Dawn reference books, and I am appreciative of its variety of
contents. As the years pass, I feel this is a volume that generations
of magicians will be grateful to have access to; and I would not be
surprised if various Adepts are now repainting sections of their
Pastos and Vault based on these newly available instructions! I have
really enjoyed reading this book, and I encourage people to buy this
and study it well, your efforts will be well repaid.

About Me

VH Frater Yod Shin Yod is an author and keen student of the Golden Dawn, and blogs to express his ideas about the tradition. He is a current Chief of Thuban Temple, the Mother Temple of the Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn.